In Iran’s Kurdistan province, strapped shopkeepers fear corona lockdown
SANANDAJ, Iran — Fifty-year-old Saaid Menbari runs a barbershop in Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdistan province. Before the coronavirus pandemic, he was providing for his family of four, but today, his shop is shut for good and rent and food costs have increased dramatically.
“I have been doing this job for 30 years. I have a wife with two children and I am renting. It was good, I was able to cover my family’s expenses before corona. But with the emergence of coronavirus, despite my shop being shut down, my income decreased 50 percent,” Menbari told Rudaw English.
Iran is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. It is now in a fifth wave of infections, and numbers of new cases and deaths are reaching record highs. The health ministry reported 39,357 new cases and 409 deaths on Wednesday, pushing the total death toll to over 92,000. The majority of the new infections are the more contagious Delta variant and 285 cities are labeled high-risk red.
Tehran’s corona hospital has a record 10,000 patients, the highest number admitted since the start of the pandemic, according to the deputy chair of the capital’s coronavirus committee. Iraj Harirchi, spokesperson for the health ministry, said that if this situation continues, the daily death toll could reach 600 next month.
More than 11 million Iranians have received the first dose of a vaccine, but fewer than three million people have received both jabs.
The pandemic comes on top of United States sanctions that have strangled the economy. Kurdistan province has seen fifty percent inflation, according to a report by Iran’s central bank. The Kurdish areas of Iran suffer from chronic unemployment and lack of income.
The Sanandaj bazaar today is looking empty. Few people are seen out on the streets.
Menbari is worried about a new lockdown. “Honestly, I can’t sleep at night. I get worried when they say there will be a new lockdown. House and store rent has doubled. I am deep in debt because fewer people visit the barbershops now due to corona.”
“I am really done with this situation I want to get out of here because I can’t think of any other solution. They haven’t been able to control corona for two years. This situation won’t be controlled and it will only damage the poor,” he said.
Shiwa Mahdikhani, 35, owns a women’s clothing store in one of the city’s malls. She has no customers. “The clothes I bought five months ago haven’t been sold because the economic crisis and coronavirus have forced people to just buy their daily food and not often come out to buy clothes. The owner has doubled the rent while the market is weak.”
She points to the empty mall, and says, “The continued corona crisis has made us all depressed. It has been two years we’re living with economic and health anxiety. There are rumours they will announce a complete lockdown again. This for us means a complete loss. I am honestly very tired of this situation and we are helpless.”
Iran’s outgoing health minister, Saied Namaki, in an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday proposed a two-week full lockdown to be enforced by the military after people in Tehran did not obey a recent order to close restaurants and bar travel.
Eastern and southern provinces of Iran have been hit hardest by the virus. The city of Mashhad in the northeast is a place of pilgrimage, drawing Shiite faithful to the shrine of Imam Reza. The city’s medical association on Sunday called for a public holiday to curb spread of the virus.
"The situation is very dangerous. In one day alone, 70 people lost their lives due to coronavirus in the city, and the medical staff are tired. Despite receiving two jabs of the vaccine, most of them have been infected,” it said in a statement.
"The arrival of every tourist in the city of Mashhad will make the situation worse. If only the elderly were dying in previous waves, now the young and the children are becoming victims of this disease. A total lockdown should be announced as soon as possible,” the statement read.
“I have been doing this job for 30 years. I have a wife with two children and I am renting. It was good, I was able to cover my family’s expenses before corona. But with the emergence of coronavirus, despite my shop being shut down, my income decreased 50 percent,” Menbari told Rudaw English.
Iran is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. It is now in a fifth wave of infections, and numbers of new cases and deaths are reaching record highs. The health ministry reported 39,357 new cases and 409 deaths on Wednesday, pushing the total death toll to over 92,000. The majority of the new infections are the more contagious Delta variant and 285 cities are labeled high-risk red.
Tehran’s corona hospital has a record 10,000 patients, the highest number admitted since the start of the pandemic, according to the deputy chair of the capital’s coronavirus committee. Iraj Harirchi, spokesperson for the health ministry, said that if this situation continues, the daily death toll could reach 600 next month.
More than 11 million Iranians have received the first dose of a vaccine, but fewer than three million people have received both jabs.
The pandemic comes on top of United States sanctions that have strangled the economy. Kurdistan province has seen fifty percent inflation, according to a report by Iran’s central bank. The Kurdish areas of Iran suffer from chronic unemployment and lack of income.
The Sanandaj bazaar today is looking empty. Few people are seen out on the streets.
Menbari is worried about a new lockdown. “Honestly, I can’t sleep at night. I get worried when they say there will be a new lockdown. House and store rent has doubled. I am deep in debt because fewer people visit the barbershops now due to corona.”
“I am really done with this situation I want to get out of here because I can’t think of any other solution. They haven’t been able to control corona for two years. This situation won’t be controlled and it will only damage the poor,” he said.
Shiwa Mahdikhani, 35, owns a women’s clothing store in one of the city’s malls. She has no customers. “The clothes I bought five months ago haven’t been sold because the economic crisis and coronavirus have forced people to just buy their daily food and not often come out to buy clothes. The owner has doubled the rent while the market is weak.”
She points to the empty mall, and says, “The continued corona crisis has made us all depressed. It has been two years we’re living with economic and health anxiety. There are rumours they will announce a complete lockdown again. This for us means a complete loss. I am honestly very tired of this situation and we are helpless.”
Iran’s outgoing health minister, Saied Namaki, in an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday proposed a two-week full lockdown to be enforced by the military after people in Tehran did not obey a recent order to close restaurants and bar travel.
Eastern and southern provinces of Iran have been hit hardest by the virus. The city of Mashhad in the northeast is a place of pilgrimage, drawing Shiite faithful to the shrine of Imam Reza. The city’s medical association on Sunday called for a public holiday to curb spread of the virus.
"The situation is very dangerous. In one day alone, 70 people lost their lives due to coronavirus in the city, and the medical staff are tired. Despite receiving two jabs of the vaccine, most of them have been infected,” it said in a statement.
"The arrival of every tourist in the city of Mashhad will make the situation worse. If only the elderly were dying in previous waves, now the young and the children are becoming victims of this disease. A total lockdown should be announced as soon as possible,” the statement read.